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Accentuation des majuscules

The preposition “à”, as in “À bientôt !” has an accent grave. But I'm reading Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets, and every time a paragraph or dialogue starts with this preposition, it leaves out the accent. Why is this? Typo or rule?

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Related: Accentuation des majuscules – Kareen Jul 7 '12 at 0:34
Voir en particulier la réponse de PhiLho qui parle spécifiquement de ce A en début de phrase. – Stéphane Gimenez Jul 7 '12 at 15:34

marked as duplicate by rds, Alexis Pigeon, Stamm, Un francophone, F'x♦ Aug 25 '12 at 13:43

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1 Answer

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No accent for uppercase letters isn't a rule but an accepted usage.

For example:

— Au revoir.
— Non, à bientôt.
— A bientôt alors.

You'll find more in usage of upper case letters in French (Fr) article in Wikipedia.

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I would say a controversial usage rather than an accepted usage. – Gilles♦ Jul 6 '12 at 21:34
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It's a vestigial use from the time when typewriters did not support accents on capital letters, or if they did, it was horrendous. Some fonts still have trouble with them nowadays, though more conservative fonts are usually all right. – Kareen Jul 7 '12 at 0:33
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It is not at all an accepted usage, publishers with highly qualified proofreaders do not accept it. The reference is not wikipedia for this matter but Les règles typographiques en usage à l'imprimerie nationale. – Laure Jul 7 '12 at 9:50

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